A Radical Approach to Offshore Activities in the New Millenium

Abstract

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThe high costs of offshore activities, particularly deepwater drilling, are currently forcing oil companies to consider new technologies and new ways of operating in an effort to reduce costs of finding oil in even deeper waters. Shell and Saipem have been working together for the last 18 months considering the idea of a Subsea Drilling rig. This work has indicated that subsea drilling is a feasible concept, which has a number of benefits over conventional drilling, although the cost to construct a fully capable rig, coupled with the technical risk associated it, means that it is unlikely to happen today. However, for rank exploration work, where success is on average very low (20-30%), it is proposed that a very small subsea rig, with the capability to gather a minimum of reservoir data through a minimum diameter hole, might be an economically attractive solution, which will enable true low cost exploration drilling.